Election 2014: 2 more enter race for Winnebago County sheriff

Retired police veteran Bob Redmond and one-time sheriff’s candidate Randy Olson announced plans this week to run in the March 18 primary.

Kevin Haas

ROCKFORD — Two Democrats want to succeed retiring Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers.
Retired police veteran Bob Redmond and one-time sheriff’s candidate Randy Olson announced plans this week to run in the March 18 primary.

Redmond has 34 years’ experience in law enforcement, most of it with the Rockford Police Department. He retired as a sergeant in the detective bureau after working in multiple roles — from traffic to burglary units, hostage negotiations, theft investigations and the violent-crimes unit — and investigating or supervising about 150 homicide cases.

“I started in the Public Safety Building two years after high school,” he said. “That’s what I’ve done my entire life.”

Redmond wants to build on a well-run, professional Sheriff’s Department, he said. His first order of business would be to dedicate more resources to narcotics investigation and gang crime, which he said fuels the area’s violent crime rate.

“When you take hard enforcement on gangs and narcotics, that is going to have an impact on your violent crime and your property crimes,” he said.

The lifelong Winnebago County resident also wants to focus more time on unsolved homicides. It’s not only an issue of public safety, but it’s important for victims and surviving family members, he said.

Olson is deputy commander and chief pilot for Air-One Emergency Response Coalition, a nonprofit that primarily assists law enforcement agencies with search-and-rescue and emergency response.
His resume also includes being an officer with the Pecatonica Police Department from 1978 to 1980, an auxiliary officer for the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department from 1975 to 1998 and deputy commander for the air support unit of the Winthrop Harbor Police Department.

Olson is a Winnebago County Forest Preserve District commissioner. He served as its president until fellow commissioners voted him out of the seat in August 2012. Commissioners were upset that Olson created a public safety management job — and made a hire — without their consent.

Olson challenged Meyers for sheriff in 1998, a year after Meyers was appointed to succeed retired Sheriff Don Gasparini. Olson ran as a Republican then and has for the majority of his political career, which included time on the Winnebago County Board.

Democrats have held the sheriff’s office since 1974. Olson said he decided to switch parties for this race because he appreciates the significance of preserving the department within the Democratic Party.

“On the Republican side, they’re going to want to go after Dick Meyers and his operation of the sheriff’s department,” he said. “He has been doing a good job. I didn’t want to go into a campaign where my advisers are saying to attack what he did or didn’t do.”

Olson wants to work with municipalities through intergovernmental agreements to police in outlying areas of Winnebago County so the Sheriff’s Department can focus on high-crime areas around the city of Rockford.

Two weeks ago Gary Caruana announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for sheriff. The retired security manager for United Parcel Service serves on the Rockford Board of Fire and Police Commissioners.